Ed's Good Fight

by Jonas Raab

Once again, Pennsylvania's environment is in the middle of what seems like a bitter custody battle with local politicians arguing about child support and visitation rights.

Gov. Ed Rendell had hoped to ask voters in November to approve an $800 million bond referendum for his Growing Greener II environmental program, which seeks to clean up contaminated industrial sites, rivers and streams and return abandoned mines to productive uses while guaranteeing money for improving community and state parks. It called for $80 million to improve the condition of rivers and streams affected by runoff from mines and other pollution; $140 million to reclaim abandoned mines and clean up resulting acid runoff, clean polluted rivers and streams and promote the use of cleaner fuels; $170 million to maintain community parks, build housing and protect historic properties in Pennsylvania towns; another $80 million for the reduction of carbon emissions and diversified energy development, such as solar cells and alternative fuels; and $330 million to protect farmland, forests, and other open spaces, such as state parks.

But Rendell's program, which would expand on initiatives established by previous adminstrations, hit a snag when it got stuck in the Pennsylvania General Assembly before summer recess.

Charles Day, executive director of the GreenSpace Alliance Project of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, blames politics: Greener II was presented by a Democratic governor to a Republican-controlled General Assembly. Former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge had the same problem when he introduced the first Growing Greener program in 1999 and had to fight to get his proposal through a Democrat-controlled Assembly.

Greener II would call for a $5 per ton increase in what the state currently charges landfill owners for every ton of garbage they receive and a new $4 per ton fee for waste that is currently exempt from disposal fees. Day says Republican leadership in the Senate is particularly against these increases as they claim that there is already enough money in the system and that these additional taxes and fees will hurt Pennsylvania's already lagging economy.

While that legislative wrangling doomed Rendell's November referendum hopes,

environmental activists say the program is certainly not dead. Rendell, who has been quoted as saying the program would help "spur economic growth" in the commonwealth, has appointed several members of a Green Ribbon Commission to take another look at Greener II and other environmental initiatives. They're expected to present their findings to legislators early next year.

Day says the measure could make its way to voters next spring at the earliest.